Western states rebuff plan for Italian nuclear waste in Utah

BOISE, Idaho - Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules.

EnergySolutions Inc. is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of waste from four Italian nuclear reactors, with a portion of it to be buried at its private disposal site in Clive, Utah.

But members of the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management said their rules would need to be changed to allow roughly five or six rail cars of waste a year to be buried there.

The group's decision, however, doesn't mean the waste can't enter the country. A spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the import license, doubts that the unanimous vote will kill the application.

"They could say we'd still like to bring the material for processing in Tennessee and dispose of it in some other way, presumably exporting the rest of it back to Italy," NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said in a phone interview.

Environmentalist oppose the shipments and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has pledged to keep his state from becoming a dumping ground for global nuclear waste.

"EnergySolutions is a bully that's used to getting its way," said John Urgo of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, which opposes the shipment. "The Northwest Interstate Compact and Gov. Huntsman refused to be bullied."

Congress created the compact in 1985 as a regional system for managing low-level radioactive waste. The compact's designated facility is in Richland, Wash., which accepts waste from Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Montana and Wyoming.

EnergySolutions takes waste from other states. Earlier this week, the company filed a lawsuit to challenge the compact's ability to regulate shipments to Utah.

The company concedes it has "coordinated some of its activities with the Northwest Compact" in the past, but insists the panel has no authority over what it handles because the Utah site is privately owned.

After the vote Thursday, EnergySolutions executives said they're hoping a federal judge rules in their favor.

"We don't believe they have the authority to make decisions like they did that govern our operations," Val Christensen, vice president and general counsel, told The Associated Press.

EnergySolutions wants to bring the Italian waste through New Orleans or Charleston, S.C., for processing and incineration in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The company then wants to bury 1,600 tons in Utah, home of the country's largest and only privately owned low-level radioactive waste dump.

In a related move, compact members approved a resolution that seeks to stop other foreign waste from being shipped to Utah after it has been reclassified as domestic waste in Tennessee, a practice since 2006 with incinerated waste from countries such as Canada, France and Germany.

The reclassification, authorized by Tennessee regulators, resolved EnergySolutions' issues with separating waste from different sources — an inaccurate, costly and potentially dangerous process, company officials said.

But the changes also mean that some foreign waste incinerated in Tennessee likely has been buried at the EnergySolutions site in Utah.

We don’t want no foreign nuclear waste in our country! We got enough here as it is. Keep your own waste Italy.

2 posted on 05/08/2008 9:09:59 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)

Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules.

We can accept other countries radioactive waste but cannot drill in Anwar ?????

Mix the waste with glass so it can't dissolve in water then bury it at sea.A good spot would be near the Pacific islands that were already nuked.

4 posted on 05/08/2008 9:56:07 PM PDT by Nateman (You only need to fool half of them once every two years.)

Berlusconi should immediately push for 10 new reactors in Italy. Italy is (like Japan) poor in animal protien, energy and natural resources and needs to produce more indigenous power.

5 posted on 05/08/2008 11:08:53 PM PDT by ffusco (Maecilius Fuscus,Governor of Longovicium , Manchester, England. 238-244 AD)

This is very strange. There are no nuclear reactors in Italy. A referendum, on Nov. 8, 1987 closed them all down.

Hmm, good point. Could they have waited all this time to decommission/defuel them?

Or maybe the rail-cars are full of old digital watches and medical isotopes :0)

So it is old waste.

And yes, they quit using Nuclear Power in 1987.

Selected Countries, Most Recent Annual Estimates, 1980-2006
Nuclear Electric Power
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/RecentNuclearGenerationKilowatthours.xls

8 posted on 05/09/2008 6:08:21 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)

Isn’t it funny how the one energy source that is the most carbon friendly is also the one the watermelon bunch hates the most?

9 posted on 05/09/2008 1:22:51 PM PDT by Nateman (Watermelon: Green on the outside, red on the inside.)

Took a while to stop laff’n

The Utah Gov is upset at a little nuke waste when (hundreds? of )tons of NERVE GAS sit just a few miles from the capital....

Too funny for words.

10 posted on 05/09/2008 2:11:58 PM PDT by ASOC (Training Storungen werden auf Papier notiert. Taktische Storungen werden im Stein geatzt. Gen Rommel)

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